


Mud Puddles

by steampunkcircus



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2019-06-30 19:35:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15758292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steampunkcircus/pseuds/steampunkcircus
Summary: Marinette and Nino met in kindergarten. Their relationship has only grown from the first time he helped her out of a mud puddle.





	Mud Puddles

**Author's Note:**

  * For [enbyred](https://archiveofourown.org/users/enbyred/gifts).



> The happiest of birthdays to my amazing sister, enbyred!! I can't believe you asked me for FLUFF. But here it is, with your dear Ninette. They're too cute, and so are you <3  
> SO MANY THANKS to [128andfalling](https://128andfalling.tumblr.com/) for beta reading this. Your careful eye was a blessing.

He held out his hand to her, and all she could focus on were the drips of rain water falling from his fingertips. When she looked up at him, it was twelve years ago in a different rainstorm.

/*****/

"You're Marinette?"

A boy with a blue shirt held his hand out to her. She had been playing on the swings at recess when the sky had gone from threatening rain to dumping buckets on them. She had slipped getting off the swing and fell in the spot of dirt under the swing that was quickly becoming a mud puddle.

"Yeah," she said, taking his hand. He yanked her to her feet and kept holding on as they ran to join the rest of the class gathering at the school doors. "You're Nino?"

"Yeah! You remember me!"

"Yeah. You're the one that tried to take a frog home in your backpack."

"Yeah! He was my favorite color."

Inside they did their best to dry off, but Marinette was still shivering when reading circle started a few minutes later.

"Marinette?" Nino whispered.

"Yeah?"

"Do you want my jacket? It's a little wet 'cause I put it on over my wet shirt, but you look really cold."

"Please and thank you," she said and soon she was snuggled in the warmth of his hoodie.

"You're welcome."

After school, Tom and Marinette were almost home when he noticed her outfit.

"That's not your jacket," he said.

"No, it's Nino's!"

Tom and Sabine grilled Marinette to try and get Nino's last name before giving up and calling all the parents they already knew asking around to try and find out whose jacket their daughter had accidentally stolen. They met the Lahiffe family in the park an hour later and handed back the jacket, allowing the kids to run around for a few minutes before parting ways.

Two days later, Nino went home wearing Marinette's red, sparkly sunglasses.

A week after that, for reasons they couldn't sufficiently explain to their parents, they came home wearing each other's socks.

/*****/

"Nino?" She raised a hand to wipe the tears falling down her face, but stopped when she remembered her hand was scraped from her fall and that the rain made doing so pointless.

"You left without saying goodbye."

/*****/

The teacher in second grade had told the kids to pair up and practice greeting each other in Spanish. Marinette poked Nino in the shoulder. He grinned, moving his desk closer to hers.

"Um, Marinette? What are you doing?" Chloe asked, crossing her arms.

"The assignment?" Marinette turned back to Nino and said, "Hola, Nino!"

"No, but, why are you working with a _boy_?"

"Because we're friends?" Nino said.

"I wasn't talking to you. You're a boy, I don't talk to gross boys." Chloe stuck her nose in the air. "Sabrina, do you know what will happen to Marinette if she keeps hanging out with boys?"

"She'll get cooties?" Sabrina asked, hoping she'd said the right thing to make Chloe happy.

"She'll get cooties! Do you _want_ cooties, Marinette Dupain-Cheng?"

Marinette looked at Nino. Nino looked at Marinette.

"Does Nino have cooties?"

"Yes. All boys have cooties."

Marinette looked back and forth between Nino and Chloe again. "Okay. Then I want cooties. Nino's cool, so anything he has is good enough for me!"

Nino grinned and said, "Gracias, Marinette!"

"Ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous!"

They spent the rest of the class chattering in broken Spanish and ignoring Chloe.

/*****/

"I didn't think you wanted me there," Marinette said, brushing her hair back from her eyes. Looking up at Nino through the rain was stinging her eyes a bit. She still couldn't take his hand.

"It's my birthday. I invited you. Why wouldn't I want you there?"

/*****/

Nino's eleventh birthday was a big deal for him. He couldn't explain why; it just felt important. He liked the number. He would be a teenager soon, but not yet. It felt good.

"So, what are we doing for that birthday of yours?" Marinette asked, hip checking him on their way out of school.

"I think it's gonna be you, the guys, and me. Is that okay?"

Marinette nodded. "If you're okay with it."

Nino kicked at a rock, watching it bounce away from them. "Kim said it's weird that it's all guys except you."

Marinette grabbed his elbow and pulled him to a stop. "Do you think it's weird?"

"No. You're my best friend."

"Then it's weird that Kim has a problem with it," Marinette said, tugging on his sleeve so they would continue walking.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm gonna tell him that."

Halfway through the party, Kim came up to Marinette as she bit into her pizza slice.

"Hey," he said, fidgeting. "I wanna say I'm sorry. Nino seems super psyched that you're here. You two make each other have more fun. So I guess it doesn't matter that you're a girl."

"Thanks, Kim," Marinette said. "Wanna play the next board game on the same team?"

Kim nodded. They crushed the other teams handily.

/*****/

"Because you can't even look at me," she said, letting her head fall so he couldn't see the way she had to bite her lip to keep it from trembling.

"Marinette," Nino said, kneeling in the muddy grass before her. "That's not why I couldn't look at you."

His hand reached out and tilted her chin up.

/*****/

"I shouldn't even be here," Nino said, smashing his face into the pillows on Marinette's chaise and muffling his next words. "Alya's your best friend. You're on her side by default. I just..." He turned to face Marinette, sitting in her computer chair and wringing her hands. "Sometimes, you're still the one I need to talk to. I know things are different since Alya and Adrien joined the class. But sometimes, I think you're the only one who gets me."

Marinette walked over and pushed at Nino's legs with her fuzzy sock clad foot. He shifted to make room, and she sat, patting him on the knee.

"I get it. And I'm on nobody's side. I just want you both to be happy. And Nino, you knew she wasn't happy."

"Yeah, I knew," he said, sighing and leaning his head back to stare at the ceiling. "I wasn't either, but I wasn't brave enough to let go until she did."

Marinette squirmed until she was lying next to him, staring at the ceiling side by side.

"You still have me," she said. "Even with Alya and Adrien. I didn't go anywhere. We just added some people, right?"

"Yeah." He leaned his head on her shoulder. "Yeah, we still have each other."

/*****/

"I love you."

She started sobbing. She tried to pull her face away, but his grip was solid. Unable to get away, she simply covered her face with her hands.

"Nino," she managed to say. "You don't even know what you're saying."

He pried her hands from her face, gripping them in his warm hold. She dipped her head, but he followed, trying to get her to look at him.

/*****/

"What is this? You've been talking to Adrien behind my back?" Nino said the week before, catching Marinette in the locker room. His tone was teasing but he was fidgeting and wouldn't look her in the eye. "Remember the good old days when you couldn't even form words around him?"

"Ha ha," Marinette said with a roll of her eyes. "Remember when you and Alya tried dating? ’Cause if we're gonna talk about embarrassing phases-"

"Fine, I concede," Nino interrupted. "But seriously, you guys looked like you were talking about something serious. Anything I should know about?"

"Nope," Marinette said, slamming her locker. "Did you finish the history essay yet? I can't find a good source for the battle's death toll. Do you have any?"

"Hey," Nino said, stepping in front of Marinette so she had to stop or bump into him. "I know when you're lying to me. What's up?"

"Nothing, Nino," she said. "I'll see you later."

Marinette made sure Nino wasn't following her and hunted down Adrien.

"Did you tell him?" she asked, grabbing him by the arm and all but yanking him into a rarely locked janitor's closet she liked to use to transform.

"Of course not!" Adrien said, holding his hands up between them. "I promised you I wouldn't tell Nino that you like him, and you promised not to tell Nathaniel that I wrote him that cheesy poem. Mutually assured destruction, remember?"

"Yeah, but you're a meddlesome busybody who thinks he knows what's good for everyone," Marinette said.

"That I am," Adrien said with a chuckle. "But he needs to hear it from you. Which is why you _are_ coming to his birthday party."

"He doesn't want me there," Marinette said. "He didn't give me an invitation until almost a full week after everyone else."

"You were on the list from the start, I promise," Adrien said. "I helped him make it. Please go to the party?"

Marinette sighed. "If I can work out an outfit."

Adrien grinned. "Chat will stop by to help you pick tonight."

"Thank you, Kitty."

Nino watched Marinette and Adrien emerge from the closet, laughing and shoving at each other, and he didn't know how to breathe anymore.

Adrien had to spend an hour and a half that night assuring Nino that he and Marinette were discussing his crush on Nath, which meant revealing his crush on Nath. He didn't mind though, because now he knew for sure that his matchmaking efforts were going towards mutually pining fools. His best friend and his Lady, together? What could be better?

/*****/

“I couldn't look at you because the second you walked through the door, I knew there would be no way I could hide just how much I wanted to kick everyone else out and keep you all to myself.”

Marinette looked up, not sure she had heard him right. His voice was quiet, and there had been a clap of thunder.

/*****/

The party was in full swing before Marinette arrived. Nino was sure she hadn't intended to be fashionably late, but late was her M.O.. Adrien pulled her over to say “happy birthday” and hand her present to the birthday boy. Nino was sure he was dreaming. Marinette’s hair fell soft around her shoulders, pinned back on the sides to show off little turtle earrings he had gotten her for Christmas a few years ago after he saw her eyeing them. She wore a red dress that fell to her knees and heels that he worried would break her ankle, but they made her legs impossibly long. He was a goner, and he was sure everyone there could tell.

“Thanks for coming,” Nino said, hoping the music was loud enough to cover the unsteadiness in his voice.

She smiled, a blush painting her cheeks, and Nino had to kiss her that very second or get away from her.

“Look! It's Rose! Hi, Rose!” Nino shouted. He smiled at Marinette and all but dove across the room.

The fifth time Nino ungracefully excused himself from Marinette's presence, she couldn't hold back her tears. So she left.

And Nino followed, his own party forgotten.

Then Marinette tripped in her high heels and landed in a mud puddle.

/*****/

“It's always been you,” Nino said, voice louder and more confident. “From the time you let me mope on your couch after your best friend dumped me. From the first time you stood up to Chloe for me. From the Sock Pact back in kindergarten.”

Marinette blinked the rain from her eyes and wondered when their faces had gotten so close together.

“From the day you fell off the swings into a mud puddle and let me help you stand.” His hands framed her face. She was sure she looked a mess with her makeup running, hair drenched, and red eyes and nose. But could Nino even see that with his glasses covered in rain drops?

“But maybe… maybe you don't feel that way,” he said, pulling away. “I mean, you left, and- and we've been friends for ages, so you probably-”

Marinette grabbed his wrist, freezing Nino on the spot. The worry line between his brows and way he bit his lip broke her resolve. Marinette had never felt better about giving in to her instincts than when she felt more than heard Nino's little gasp as she crashed her lips into his.

/*****/

Hugo Lahiffe watched his parents move about the kitchen from under the dining room table. They didn't speak a word, but they knew what the other needed, handing each other pancake ingredients, pouring coffee, and planting quick kisses as they passed each other in a dance choreographed long ago. His parents had been asked the day before while he played in the park, “How did you two meet?” They had said, “We were Hugo's age.” Hugo wondered what knowing someone that long meant. He glanced out the window to see Annie Agreste was playing in her sandbox. Dad had said, “I just knew.”

Maybe Hugo knew, too.

**Author's Note:**

> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/), and go wish [enbyred](https://little-red-alchemist-of-doom.tumblr.com/) a happy birthday!


End file.
